Bridging Year

Bridging year classes are held in the year prior to learners entering Bulungula College with Grade 9 learners from our feeder school. The focus of these classes is Mathematics and English. Students were also given homework and tutoring support in other subjects where needed.

The Bridging Year syllabus is made up of both teacher support, as well as use of excellent online programmes.

For mathematics we use an online programme called Mathsbuddy that covers the South African curriculum from Grade 1 – 12. Mathsbuddy starts with an online diagnostic evaluation for baseline assessment of each learner, and we administer the Numbersense baseline test. These diagnostic assessments enable us to place each learner in the right group for their learning needs. Because each learner receives a personal login, the project management and facilitator teams can assess each learner’s progress and work after each lesson. This facilitates constant evaluation and assessment of the learners and enables learning tasks to be set and targeted for each individual. All lesson sessions are recorded and timestamped.

For Bridging Year classes in English we enrol learners in IXL, and Grammar Test 5555, which are online English grammar programmes. They have access to thousands of CAPS-aligned language exercises, designed for Grade 1-12 which enable individual learners to work at their own level. The analytics are a useful tool for driving differentiated learning, which is essential given the ground we have to cover in the limited time we have with learners in which to fill in their knowledge area gaps.